Saturday, June 16, 2007

Q. I was wondering how much a producer / creator / writer of a series makes when he sells a 10 part series to the sundance channel - like slings and arrows for example. I imagine everyone gets a piece of the pie, the production company, his agent, etc...

How long is a piece of string?

SLINGS & ARROWS is a Canadian series created for The Movie Network (which I'm creating a show for); it later aired on Showcase. How much the creators might have made for a US sale depends on their contract. Their deal might provide a bump in compensation if there's a US sale, or they might only have a share in net profits (aka "monkey points"). Or, if Mark McKinney and Co. are very clever indeed, they held onto a piece of the show, and are now frolicking in a field of mink.

... Though the Sundance Channel probably does not pay very much for a license fee.

What you get depends on how badly they want the series, how much they want you, how much you've been paid before, and the budget of the series -- which in turn depends on the network it's on and how many territories are presold.

To get a bit more specific, on a show with a budget of $1M an episode, the writer of record of an individual episode might see around $30K as a script fee. The creator gets a small percentage royalty on each episode's budget; and the showrunner gets a weekly salary in the middle to high four digits, or a flat fee per episode that amounts to the same thing. If you are all three, it can add up to very nice, put-a-down-on-a-condo numbers, though probably not enough to be considered rich in LA.

I have no idea what US showrunners and creators get, but it's probably on the order of three to five times more, that is, put-a-down-on-a-house-on-Laurel Canyon type numbers. (Though if you're smart, you'll buy a condo in West LA instead, and stay solvent for the next five years even when you're cancelled.)

I saw a chart that gives an idea how much a cable network like sundance pays per ep.